The Kia Carnival had previously been rocking a 4-starr ANCAP (Australasian New Car Assessment Programme) rating, and the Korean people mover seemed near-enough content with that score.
But recently, that rating has been revised toward the Kia’s favour, with units manufactured after the fateful date of 23rd December 2015 being eligible for this straight-starred rating. The story goes that, prior to this new and improved rating, ANCAP cited that during the mandatory crash tests, the park and foot brakes had undergone “excessive movement” as well as unacceptable amounts of footwell deformation, leading to a potentially more dangerous collision to its driver, ergo the less-than-perfect score.
Since then, Kia has acted fast to add in subtle but significant fixes to the carnival at the factory-level, addressing the issues rated by ANCAP. The rating system is based on points, with the Carnival previously scoring close to 10.5 points over a maximum of 20, and units manufactured after 23rd December fitted with the fix scoring a higher 14.3 points.
That 3.8 points was enough to bump the Carnival’s overall rating from four to 5-stars. Side impact protection, most notaby, received a maximum score of 16 points, while pedestrian protection and whiplash prevention scored a mediocre Acceptable and Good rating, in that order.
James Goodwin, ANCAP’s Chief Executive Officer, said: “After a disappointing four-star result for the Carnival in March last year, Kia has worked to implement a number of safety improvements which have seen the vehicle reach the five-star mark,”
“A number of design changes to the Carnival have seen the score in the frontal offset test increase substantially and consumers should feel confident the updated vehicle offers significant improvements to safety.”
